ATHENS, March 13 (Reuters) - Alpha Bank, Greece’s fourth-largest lender by assets, said on Tuesday it had signed an agreement with B2Holding group for the disposal of a 3.7 billion euro pool of non-performing loans (NPLs), as part of efforts to reduce its load of sour debt.

The outstanding principal amount was 2 billion euros in end-June, the bank said in a statement, adding that “the consideration of the transaction has been agreed at 90 million euros”. The transaction is expected to be concluded within the first quarter, it said.

Greek banks are burdened by soured loans clogging up their balance sheets and holding back lending. They have agreed with European Central Bank regulators to shrink non-performing exposures by about 40 percent by end-2019. (Reporting by Lefteris Papadimas; Writing by Renee Maltezou)